The latest in Tasmanian books and writing news, September 2022

Yesterday morning I sat in bed with a cup of tea and sobbed. I’d just finished Robbie Arnott’s new book, Limberlost. While rare these days, I was moved to tears by this gentle story of Ned who we meet shooting rabbits along the Tamar to sell pelts and buy himself a little boat while his brothers are away at war. There is no escaping the gentle intensity of Robbie’s best novel so far (and yes, I adored the rambunctious Flames and the environmental peon Rain Heron).

Limberlost is launching in Hobart on October 6 and up north at the Tamar Valley Writers Festival in October, with events in the North West after that.  Get your orders in now, this is a book that will have a few print runs – don’t miss the first. 

THE Tamar Valley Writers Festival have also announced they are hosting Michael Mohammed Ahmed and Winnie Dunn, co-creators of Sydney’s Sweatshop Literary Movement, which has bought to light some of Australia’s most exciting writers. The festival's program is fleshing out well – Melissa Lukashenko and Jack Serong two others I’m looking forward to hearing talk about their work.

In international news, two Tasmanians, currently based in Glasgow, have forged a editing and mentoring set up, Praxis.

Joe Nuttall, best known for his musical form in Enola Form, and Lesley Halm, with her editorial acumen, have worked with their first author, on The Great Orange Ogre by Chris Eipper. Keep an eye out for Praxis, I trust they will do nothing predictable. 

We must have some announcements coming soon regarding the state’s literary prizes, but in the mean time, historian Alison Alexander has deservingly won the $25 000 Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History for The Waking Dream of Art: Patricia Giles, Painter. 

Poetry abounds across the state:

Elder Pete Hay is launching Sarah Day’s new collection Slack Tide with Fullers on 29 September and Seasonal Poets is back for Spring at Hadleys in Hobart on Monday 19, featuring Helga Jermy, Rose Lucas and Anne Kellas.

Anne is also hosting a poetry workshop as part of the Tasmanian Poetry Festival on September 30. She asks ‘when writing poetry, how do we get the balance right between the pull of our won ‘earthly history’ and that of the mystery of the ‘invisible’? I ask myself that most days, about how the numinous can sit alongside the news, it does though, it does so every day. 

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=957326&fbclid=IwAR2LOPYnePjyw85ENahnq0w_-fEbCI7wW-QgL6GSqWJdMEJJIbYGy74bQwM

And in Launceston, the Poetry Pedlars are having their month gathering on Tuesday 13, featureing Kim Nielsen-Creeley as guest poet, ahead of her chapbook launch which will take place during Launceston’s Junction Festival. 

Joel Rheinberger has written some fun and feisty novels, (my favourite is Chick Magnet, 2015) and now he’s venturing into Young Adult territory, with the first two in Poppy Lu series up now on Amazon. 

Designer Jennifer Cossins has been shortlisted for the CBCA Eva Pownall Award for her Book of Curious Birds and Tasmanian science writers Zoe Kean and Lydia Hale have been selected for The Best of Australian Science Writing from UNSW Publishing which will be published later this year. 

A new book from Linda Cockburn (I so enjoyed Who Killed Dave, a fun whodunit) Eat My Shadow, described as dystopic lit fic, is the first in a series. And did I imagine that she is reworking the 2006  Living the Good Life, How One Family Changed Their World From Their Own Backyard? A smart book then, will be even smarter now. 

If you’re in the North West of the state, this Wednesday, 7 September, Minnie Darke (one of the pen names of the adored writer Danielle Wood) will be at the Devonport library discussing her new book With Love from Wish & Co.

I’m in conversation with Favel Parrett about Past the Shallows, her sad and deeply Tasmanian first novel, next Wednesday at Fullers. Why, so many years after publication? Archipelago Productions’ play of this lovely novel is about to start its first season in Hobart. 

And, for something different, involving senses other than sight, your hearing, your tasting (and sight too) will be stimulated at The Devil is in the Details  - an immersive spoken word performance based on traditional folk tales about tricksters.

Food from Miss Honey Child, Stories from Roaming Tree’s Tamas Oszvald, this is happening on September 23 at The LongHouse in Hobart.

Bring back the trickster. 

Books and writing news, August 2022

 Darlings, it has been a while

I recently had the absolute mind bending opportunity to interview Stella Prize winning poet Eveyln Araluen about her stop-you-in-your-tracks collection Drop Bear. She was here for a week long conference on Aboriginal literature at UTas– and the program was wild. And I missed the whole thing. This was part if the inspiration to reinstate this monthly column of books and writing news from around lutruwita Tasmania.

Big news is that Brendan Colley’s The Signal Line has been shortlisted for The AgeBook of the Year (fiction). This novel, which is getting accolades left, right and centre, was also recognised in manuscript form – winning the Unpublished Manuscript Prize, Tasmanian Premier’s Literary AwardsWinners will be announced on September 8. .

Tasmanian writer and editor Zowie Douglas Kinghorn has recently been appointed editor of Voiceworks. You’ll find her distinct voice tweeting here. 

Tasmanian writer/illustrator team, Aunty Patsy Cameron and Lisa Kennedy, were shortlisted for the Wilderness Society's new Karajia Award for Sea Country, Magabala Books for Environmental Children's Lit by First Nations creators.

The Tamar Valley Writers Festival has just announced a ripper line up including Michael Mohamed Ahmed, Robbie Arnott, Meg Bignell and Melissa Lukashenko. It runs between 14-17 of October, with early bird tickets only on sale until August 29.

The festival is also hosting two in conversation events in August, with Dr Norman Swan with Dr Polly McGee, and then Norman in conversation with Goodlife Permaculture’s Hannah Maloney, who is also the festival’s ambassador.

The festival’s theme is The Good Life.

In book news a new collected from respected poet Karen Knight will be released in time for Christmas It will feature photographs by her partner, and newly recognised photographer Jules Witek. Karen is best known for her work Postcards from the Asylum, a collection of poems that look at notions of madness and incarceration and reference her time at Willow Court.

Karen Harrland’s new book, Daughter of the Plateau will be launched at Fullers on Friday 5. The event looks like it’s already sold out, if this one has the delights of her first book, Spinifex Baby, which won the National Finch Memoir Prize, it will be worth the read.

I was invited to a gathering of influential bookish people which was last week. It was to get us talking about Tasmania Reads, an initiative of Libraries Tas and the State Government. It will take place for a week next March. A three tiered project, which acknowledges the parlous state of literacy in Tasmania, the project is encouraging innovative interpretations and has some inspired crew working on it. A lovely chat with Alexander from Black Swan Bookshop ensued and got me thinking about the fabulousness that was Nude Girls Reading, or whether Transportation Press should rise from its lengthy slumber.

In August it will be 50 years since Lake Pedder, the mythic (for my generation and younger) pink sandy beach deep in some our wildest wildness. Water(shed) is being launched to coincide with this. The book looks exquisite, and features work from 50 artists alongside essays by leading Tasmanians including Kate Crowley and Greg Lehman. Launching August 10 at Fullers.

In the North of the state, even the AGRIcultured festival is getting bookish. They have events with Rees Campbell, about her new Eat More Wild Tasmanian, and Gardening Australia’s Hannah Moloney and Costa Georgiadis, both of them published authors. 

537 Days Winter  by David Knoff is being launched at The Hobart Bookshop on Friday 26^th. He spent that long in Antarctica – the lock down of the deep south.

 Keep an eye out for the Tasmanian Heats and Final of the Australian Poetry Slam will be held in Hobart, Launceston and Deloraine during August, dates and venues being finalised.

And drop me a line, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

PS my little online bookshop, Books On Her Selection (I choose them all) has some pretty good titles at the moment. I am biased though. 

 

Paige Turner November

 Edging towards the end of the year and towards summer, towards Christmas and all it allows us to manifest. Good luck and good sleeps to all those booksellers (and other retail workers) who face up to what Christmas means every day for about six weeks before the actual day itself.. And I wish you ALL a fine reading season. Tonnes of things still happening….

Seasonal Poets: The Spring Reading is on 12th November, 6pm at the lovely Hadleys in Hobart. Anne Morgan, Ross Donlon and  Edith Speers are reading. Edith was a Poet in Residence when I was at school and the introduction to her poetry was gently seismic. I plan to go along to hear her again, so many years later.

Poet Gina Mercer is involved in a collaboration taking place later in the month, with three musicians in the form of Rubato Express, and the Derwent River, their muse and inspiration. Imagine it. The Derwent from Lake St Clair to Storm Bay. They have composed music in response to her poems, and, in her words, “at a recent rehearsal they played a piece they'd just composed to interweave with one of my poems about stingrays. And oh, I just about swooned with delight. It was the loveliest most stingray-ey music I could imagine... all ripply and sinuous and just brilliant.”
Diving Into The Derwent: music, poetry, images is happening at MAC on 25^th November at 2.30 pm. Tickets: $25/$20, with a homebaked afternoon tea included.

On 21 November, journalist Kerry O'Brien's Launceston launch of his recent memoir, Kerry O’Brien, a memoir ( I had to) is happening at St John Craft Bar, Launceston, co -hosted by Petrarchs Bookshop & UTAS. He will also be in conversation with Professor Richard Eccleston, of the Institute for Social Change, at the Stanley Burbury Theatre, UTas on November 22 at 6pm.

Josh Santospirito is pouring his generous energy into comics and zones again, with

November 16th starring the launch party for the Small Press Zine Fair.  This will feature Read To Me: a night of audio-visual storytelling with seven storytellers including our very special guest from Sydney Meg O’Shea who is a 2018 Ignatz nominee for “outstanding online comic”. This event is from 7pm at 65 Murray street. $5 entry with a bar and music. More details and full lineup here - https://www.facebook.com/events/435276646876657/

Pay heed too, the 2018 Small Press Zine Fair is on November 17, from 1pm at the Battery Point Community Hall, All welcome! Young and old. This is the sixth annual zine fair. https://www.facebook.com/events/224057454971379/

Tasmanian playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer’s debut short story won the Hope Prize, of which the winning short stories are being launched in book form on 8 November at 6:30pm at Readings in Hawthorn, Melbs. The Hope Prize is the Brotherhood of St Laurence’s national short-story competition, judged by famous people and it encourages writers to explore resilience in the face of adversity.

Tasmanian writer Ben Walter, whose short form is mighty fine and has been most recently recognised in this year’s Best Australian Science Writing, for an essay about the bushfires in the Tarkine region, and also with a story included in Best Summer Stories from Black Inc should be picked up by a publisher who will be able to respectfully bring his longer form to a wider audience. Sorry if this is embarrassing Benny, but seriously!

On November 20 at 5.30, Tasmanian of the year, Scott Rankin from Big hArt is launching his platform paper for the Quarterly Essay,  Cultural Justice and the Right to Thrive.

 Bright Thinking is on 8 November, topic is Death. Hosted by Island magazine, Womankind magazine, New Philosopher magazine, Salamanca Arts Centre and poet store at the Salamanca Arts Centre. This is a good event to get some brain muscles philosophically churning, and to meet randoms.

The Society of Women Writers Tasmania Poetry Prize is open for entries and concludes on the 30th November 2018.  Information about entering is on the SWWT website: www.swwtas.org, or from the Competition Coordinator on wendylaing02@gmail.com. 

A Published Event has just launched the latest 'seam' of Lost Rocks at The Unconformity, along with walks and talks by three of the authors. Copper by Jerry de Gryse, Shale by Julie Gough, Copper by Raymond Arnold, Mudstone by Rory Wray-McCann and Lead Sulphide by Tine Melzer and Markus Kummer. All the details for purchasing are on our website http://www.apublishedevent.net/projects/lost-rocks or they are also available from Fullers Bookshop.

Let me finish with something mercenary. For a couple of hussles, I sell books. New ones, and second hand ones that you can find on my website ONHERSELECTION.bigcartel.com. I select the very best books, completely subjectively and tell you exactly why I think the 1988 David Foster autobiography, the 19XX Booker Prize winner, the El Salvadorean Nobel Laureate, the trashy-ness of Blue Lagoon (with the movie cover) are the books I would love you to read. Happy Christmas, top of the season to you.

Paige Turner - October

The first Saturday of the month sees the Claremont Community Library (which was opened by volunteers when the Claremont Library was closed) is holding a book fair between 10-3. This is a fully volunteer run community library and you’ll find it in the Claremont Hall. The Hobart Bookshop, along with Astrolabe, are also hosting a book fair, this one at the Battery Point Hall, on October 6 (possibly soon to be consecrated International Book Fair Day).

Jane Williams’ collection of poems for children My Nan Speaks Nanish, and her picture book Oskar Saves The Day World, are being launched by Anne Morgan at Hobart Bookshop, on October 4th at 5.30 pm. 

Also at the Hobart Bookshop, you will find the wonderful children's author Lian Tanner signing her new book Secret Guardians on Saturday, OCtober 13 between 10.30-11.30am.

On October 2 I’ll be in conversation with Krissy Kneen about her new novel, Wintering a thriller set in the deep south of Tasmania. Krissy’s one of Australia’s most transgressive and exhilarating writers and thinkers, and this foray into thriller (she has written memoir, erotica, spec fic and poetry) has me on the edge of my seat. Fullers Bookshop, 5.30.

The night after, you can hear Krissy in conversation with author of Flames, Robbie Arnott, with Island editor Vern Field guiding the conversation, umpiring a possible arm wrestle. This is organised by Island mag, and will incorporate the monthly Silent Reading Party – from 6pm in the Crystal Room at Institut Polaire. Check Island’s Facebook page, this is filling fast. This event is run in conjunction with Text Publishing.

Novelist and academic, Dr Rosie Dub, along with Neil Cameron, founder of the Festival Of Voices are taking bookings now for their writing workshop, The Heroic Journey. In this workshop you will take a close look at the stages in the Heroic Journey, their purposes and how they can be implemented in your stories in ways that are exciting and original. Salamanca Arts Centre on Saturday 3^rd & Sunday 4^th November. ($250 or $230).
For further information, visit Rosie's website.

Katherine Johnson's new novel, Matryoshka will be launched at Fullers Bookshop on October 18. This is Katherine's third novel and it covers territory of intergenerational trauma, migration, love and Tasmania.

Hobart Fringe Festival? Last I heard of this when I was crying on the Fringe secretary’s door step C2007, stepping away from all involvement, burnt burnt burnt out, like it did to so many of us – so I rejoice at the redux of a Hobart Fringe Festival. All power, and good night sleeps to the new Fringe heads.
 You can submit your expression of interest now – it is open and accepting of everyone and everything – though I do wonder if the Polish Club will be as um, avant-garde as we were – eg will there be a poetry show with wads of offal thrown around the stage. That said, the Hobart Fringes of yore featured some bloody amazing stuff, from here, from abroad, some of the absolute crazy gems that inform a lot of the current arts scene in Hobart (alongside that museum of course, of course). https://www.fringeattheedgeoftheworld.com.au/

Speaking of festivals, the Tasmanian Poetry Festival runs over the first weekend of the month, in and around Launceston. This year will feature, among other events, a night of Slamduggery, Tasmania’s pre-eminent slam poetry competition, and Arielle Cottington. More information can be found on their website -  

Alison Alexander’s new book, Duck and Green Peas Forever, finding Utopia in Tasmania is being launched by Professor Henry Reynolds at the Town Hall on October 12 at 4pm. It looks like another ripper of Tasmanian history from Fullers Publishing.

The Tasmanian branch of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators are holding a conference and professional development opportunity on Saturday 27^th of October. They are also offering manuscript assessments, and the opportunity to meet agents face to face. This is a wonderful opportunity for those on the ground in Tasmania, who are brewing books for children. More information contact Anne Morgan – morganataswa@gmail.com

Arts Tasmania have announced which organisations they are funding for 2018/2019. They had just over $700 000 available for all the arts organisations in the state for this period, and it is good to see that the Sydney Review of Books will be commissioning essays on the Tasmanian Writing Life, though no other support for literature orgs made it past the dollar sign – and nor do I know if others applied. The Tasmanian Writers Centre, which was not awarded funding from Arts Tasmania last year, has recently had Jill Eddington, formerly of the Australia Council looking in to their situation as well as the literature ‘scene’ more generally in Tasmania, and it is understood the centre did not apply in the latest funding round.

The twelfth Bushcare Walking Book Club, organised by scientist and writer Nicole Gill of the Hobart City Council will see a group of walkers strolling along the Sandy Bay Foreshore and discussing George Monbiot's Feral. This book is a "search for enchantment on the frontiers of rewilding", and a very readable call to arms by Monbiot, for us to consider returning some of our human landscapes to the natural world, and to enliven ourselves in the process. Monbiot is perhaps best known as a journalist covering social justice and environmental issues for The Guardian. He also hates sheep. During the stroll, Nicole will also explain­ a little about a rewilding program taking place beneath the waters of our own river.

Meet at the Sandy Bay Sailing Club car park, Long Point Road, Sandy Bay, at 2PM on Sunday 7^th October. RSVP to bushcare@hobartcity.com.au

If you have any books or writing news, I’d love to hear it – drop me a line racheledwards488@gmail.com

Paige Turner - September

Many times have I begun this column with a breathy incitement to get some bookish events into you. This month you’ll be struggling not to – what, with ingenious and lovely People’s Library, the Tamar Valley Writers’ Festival and a resounding swathe of other events, both north and south, I challenge you to stay by the hearth with a cat on your lap.

As well as the above two celebrations of the word, which you can read more about in these pages, I am really looking forward to hearing Sholeh Wolpe (Iran/US) discuss her translation of The Conference of the Birds by Farid ud-Din Attar. Originally written in Persian in the twelfth century it is considered one of Persian literature’s most celebrated masterpieces. Rumi (who is the number one bestselling poet in the United States today, all these centuries after he first penned his earthy and ethereal beauty) believed Attar to be “the Master” of Sufi mystic poetry. Sholeh will read from her translation and discuss the process of bringing this luminous, allegorical tale to a contemporary English translation. All this, at Fullers on September 19, 5.30pm. Make sure you drop Fullers a line to rsvp (@fullersbookshop.com.au).

You’ll also find her performing some of her own poetry – and a performance to behold it will be- (I’ve had the fortune to see her perform twice before, once in Guangzhou, China and once in Singharaja, Bali, I travel for beautiful words, I really do)– at The People’s Library on September 18 at 7pm. I hope she will also be delivering a workshop – check out Transportationpress.net for more details (Transportation Press is sponsoring her visit to our island, and yep, that’s me).

Ray Glickman is in the state for the Tamar Valley Writers’ Festival and after the festival he’s travelling south to deliver, with Ian Andrew, a special workshop on democratic publishing called Publishing Power to the People. This will take place on the afternoon of September 20. This workshop will cost $30, run for three hours and cover subjects such as they lay of the land in independent (self) publishing, what the merits of independent publishing actually are, especially compared to the traditional publishing space, and it will also include a panel discussion, as well as a Q & A opportunity for participants. Drop me a line for more details. 

Let’s jump ahead a little to October 2 at Fullers Bookshop, when I’ll be chatting withKrissy Kneen about her new novel, Wintering. This novel takes Queensland author Kneen, who has in the past delved deep into some transgressive erotica, pushed boundaries with futuristic imaginings and smashed paradigms with sexy blue goo to the deep south of Tasmania. Krissy makes for a generous interview subject – and this book is rich pickings for an entertaining conversation.

Margaretta Pos has edited Among the Willows and Wild Things: The Fingal Valley Nature Diary of a Young Girl in the 1930s. This was written by Ann Page, Margaretta’s mother and will be launched at the Tamar ValleyWriters Festival at the Tamar Valley Resort at Grindelwald, on Saturday, September 15^th at 1.15pm. It is a free public event and legendary raconteur and editor of the Tasmanian Times, Lindsay Tuffin, will be doing the launching honours. He will be in conversation with Margaretta Pos about the book. The Governor, Professor Kate Warner, has written a foreword, the preface is by Margaretta Pos, with illustrations by Sabina Gillett, who lives in Perth (Tasmania). The Hobart launch will be at the Hobart Bookshop, Salamanca Square, on Friday, September 21^st at 6pm. It will be launched by Don Knowler. Knowler writes the weekly column, On the Wing, for the Mercury. He is the author of The Shy Mountain, a year in the life of kunanyi/Mount Wellington and other books.

Among the Willows and Wild Things is a limited edition of 300 copies published by Forty South. It retails for $35. 

Poet Jane Williams will be bringing her work to an appreciative audience alongside Susan Austin at the next Republic Readings, on Sunday, 2nd September at 3pm. This will happen at the Republic Hotel in North Hobart. It’s a free event, with a welcoming open mic.

I’m super stoked to see Robbie Arnott’s book Flames shortlisted for The Readings Prize, and it is equally lovely to see playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer win the Brotherhood of St Lawrence’s national Hope Prizefor his short story ‘Like Dresses in a Tree’.
Robbie has also been shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards' University of Queensland Fiction Book Award. 

Silent Reading returns in September. In September it is coinciding Australian Reading Hour (some days I have a few of those) and is happening as part of the soon to be fabled People’s Library. For more details, check out the Island Facebook page.

You’ve read here about the progressive monthly gathering Reading For the Revolution, organised by Millie Rooney. These are now a regular instalment at 0730 on the second Tuesday of the month at the Food Store in South Hobart.

As always Fullers Bookshop is providing a buzzing space of culture, hosting book launches including Andrew L Urban’s Murder by the Prosecution on the 6^th of the month, and Clementine Ford discussing her new book Boys Will Be Boys on September 27.

If you’ve got any book news or interesting word related elements, drop me a line

Racheledwards488@gmail.com

Paige Turner - August

I hope you’re having a good winter, whatever your version of good may be. I ate pizza in the bath the other day and that helped in the good-winter stakes. And I’ve been reading Yuri Herrera, a Mexican writer, via his translator Lisa Dillman – who somehow brings Mexican street slang to a sharp gnarliness in English. Ooof! The proscriptive lawlessness of the drugking pin’s court in Kingdom Cons and the young artist, creator of corridos, -smugglers tunes- has knocked me sideways. It’s partly a language thing, as is the preoccupation by the narrator in Susanna Moore’s 1990s dark erotic In The Cut, which I’m reading, alongside pre-reading for the Tamar Valley Writers Festival in September. I saw the movie of Into the Cut years ago so the some of the suspense is gone in the read – but the narrator studies street slang of New York, and often makes asides in the text about the joy or strangeness of a word.

Slam Poetry’s a buzz all around the state in August. In the south, SilverWords' slam night, WhamBamSilverSlam returns after a fantastic first event in June. Poets will have a strict 2 minute time limit and there are cashmoneyprizes for the 1^st and 2^nd place-getters. Judges are selected at random from the audience. Classic slam set up with some ripper poets. 16 August 6.30pm at Irish Murphys, Salamanca.

And up north, Slamduggery’s dropping in on The Cardinels and friends, as they launch their debut album, Sick Fiction. August 18, Greenwood Bar, Launceston.

And pretty much everywhere else are heats for the Australian Poetry Slam, a national literary performance program and comp. In Tasmania these are coordinated and hosted by Tasmanian writer, poet, thrice National Slam Finalist and twice winner of the Launceston Poetry Cup, Yvonne Gluyas, and award winning writer and poet, Joy Elizabeth. The first and second Tasmanian Finals place-getters will receive flights to Sydney, tickets to the Performing Writers Festival and will compete in the Australian Poetry Slam National Final at the Sydney Opera House. Heats - 2nd August in Launceston, 7th August in Hobart, 12th August in Latrobe, 21st August in Deloraine. Tasmanian Final - 25th August in Launceston. For further details, contact Yvonne Gluyas yvonnegluyas@gmail.com

The Tamar Valley Peace Festival is a program encouraging local groups to raise awareness of peace in our communities by hosting events in early August. Launceston Toastmasters is holding a public meeting and the theme of the evening is ‘Peace and Respect’. Discover how Toastmasters can help you achieve your confidence, leadership and speaking goals at this event on 8^th August 2018, 7pm at Enterprize, Launceston. Free with a light supper.

Publisher Forty South’s Van Diemen History Prize is now open for entries. They are seeking excellent nonfiction articles of up to 3000 words on any aspect of Tasmania’s history prior to the 21^st century.  This biennial prize is an initiative of Forty South Publishing and the stated aim is to foster quality writing about Tasmanian history. There is a cash prize and publication in Tasmania 40 South, with a selection of the best work published in The Van Diemen Anthology. Entries close on September 24^th and an entry fee of $20 per article.  Click here for more details.

Reading for the Revolution #7: Pause, Reflect, Inspire! This month’s discussion will focus on topics covered so far, and how they relate to each other. Ponder the questions:  What are the links between racism and diversity and a universal basic income? Where does this link with notions of democracy or fair governance?
Millie Rooney, who founded this revolutionary conversation space, suggests going back to some of the big picture work of Naomi Klein and George Monbiot.

14th August, 7.30am, upstairs in the Food Store, South Hobart

For information contact millierooney@gmail.com

The Society of Women Writers short story competition closes on the 31st of August.  The theme is 'Life Changing'.  For information regarding rules contact Wendy Laing, the comp’s coordinator.  wendylaing02@gmail.com or check their website.

I was recently interviewed about my thoughts on whether there an increase of fora and storytelling events in Tasmania. While acknowledging that ‘storytelling’ a la Moth and the magnificent Storytellers Cup at Huon Midwinter (as biased as I may be- I produce it) is quite the mode, there have been stories told on this land for tens of thousands of years, and organisations like the National Book Council of Tasmania, a little known gem, has possibly been running for decades. Their August meeting to be held on August 15 at 1pm and features Dr Tom Dunning speaking about the new collaborative history The Kaleidoscope of Launceston. Second floor, Launceston Library.

Did you see THAT? Library! Not LINC – we’ve dropped the weasely acronym and returned to calling the library, the library. Little victories, my friends, little victories.

If you have some bookish news, I’d love to hear from you -racheledwards488@gmail.com